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How to write a UGC brief creators can actually use
Build a clear UGC campaign brief with a practical template covering your audience, message, deliverables, references, and feedback process.
A good UGC brief gives a creator enough direction to make the right content, with enough room to sound like themselves. It connects your campaign goal to the specific video or photo you need. It should also make the next step obvious: what to make, what to submit, and how feedback will work.
Start with a short, usable document rather than a long presentation. A creator should be able to find the product, audience, main message, deliverables, and deadline without searching through a conversation. Here is a practical way to put that brief together.
Start with one clear campaign goal
Describe the job the content needs to do. Introducing an unfamiliar product is different from demonstrating how it works or answering a buying question. Pick the main objective before you choose a format.
Then describe the person watching. Include their situation, the problem they are trying to solve, and what they already know. An audience description such as ‘someone packing for their first weekend away with a carry-on’ gives a creator more to work with than ‘people aged 18–35’.
- What should the viewer understand after watching?
- Which question or hesitation should the content answer?
- What is the one next step you want the viewer to take?
Explain the product in everyday language
List the product name, the version being featured, and the facts a creator can check. Explain the benefit through a situation: what does the product help someone do, and what would that look like on camera? Separate confirmed product facts from optional creative suggestions.
Keep the main message narrow. A video asked to cover every feature can become a product catalogue. Choose one central benefit and a few supporting points, then identify any wording that needs your approval before filming. Give creators a contact for questions instead of asking them to fill gaps with guesses.
Make the deliverables specific
Write down the exact assets you need. ‘One video’ leaves important decisions open. Specify the format, orientation, approximate length, and whether you need a clean export, captions, alternative openings, still images, or source footage.
Discuss how and where you intend to use the content before production. Put the intended channels, campaign duration, and any requested variations in the agreement and brief. This keeps the production request visible to everyone without relying on assumptions.
- Asset count and format: for example, one vertical product demonstration.
- Required shots: product packaging, the product in use, and the finished result.
- Delivery details: file format, naming, upload location, and dates.
- Review details: who gives feedback, when it arrives, and what the agreed revision process includes.
Use references to explain the idea, not prescribe a copy
For each reference, say what you like about it: the opening question, the lighting, the pace, or the way the product is demonstrated. A link without an explanation can be interpreted in several different ways.
Divide your instructions into requirements and possibilities. Required product facts, prohibited claims, and essential shots belong in the first group. Suggested hooks, locations, and transitions belong in the second. Invite the creator to propose an approach that fits both the brief and their usual style.
A simple UGC brief template
Copy these headings into your next campaign. Keep each answer short enough that someone can use the brief while planning and filming.
- Campaign goal: what this content needs to achieve.
- Audience: who is watching and what matters to them.
- Product and main message: what to show and what the viewer should remember.
- Deliverables: asset count, format, length, and required shots.
- Creative direction: useful references and space for the creator's proposal.
- Schedule: product arrival, concept check, first draft, feedback, and final delivery.
- Review and intended use: the decision-maker, revision process, and agreed channels.
Check the brief before you send it
Read the brief as if you had never seen the product. Can you explain the task in a sentence? Can you identify the non-negotiables? Is there enough time between receiving the product and submitting the first draft? If two stakeholders disagree about an answer, resolve that before asking the creator to begin.
Once the brief is agreed, keep its latest version with the campaign. Consolidate feedback into one response rather than sending separate messages from several people. The brief then becomes a shared reference throughout production, review, and delivery.